How are the Coconut Palms looking ?

[jrh735]

I was wondering how the Coconut Palms look in the rest of Florida ? Here in Miami Beach they look beat up,and the lower fronds are all brown. We have also had quite a few that just wilted and died. West of downtown Miami most got really burned badly. The yellow Maypans dont seem to do well in the cold at all. I hope the cities will replant what was lost. Coconut palms make such a nice addition to the landscape.

[Steve the palmreader]

Thats how they look in SW fl. also the growers on pine island lost alot of coconuts I think it was from the prolonged cold My figi drawfs look fine no damage at all

[cfkingfish]

The damage is sporadic and doesn't make a whole lot of sense at times. Areas that stayed cool for a long time, even coastal areas that didn't go below freezing, have bad damage. On the west coast, St. Pete Coconuts are almost all dead, but downtown Bradenton, Sarasota, Punta Gorda, Ft. Myers, Naples look pretty good, outlying areas not so much. Palm Beach County looks in good shape, but out in West Dade, things look ratty. I just got back from Estero Island (Ft. Myers Beach), and on the main strip, there were some Cocos that did not make it. Moore Haven and Clewiston got hit BAD too.

[tikitiki]

I lost 5 of 6. Not a shocker as I'm in Orlando. There are some in orlando that look great, better than some in Palm Beach. Makes little to no sense.

[redant]

I lost more then half of mine, yet I can drive 30 miles north and further inland to Port. St Lucie and see coconuts in much better shape then mine. It's weird.

[sick1166]

so far 2 ot of 34 didnot male it and they are all very tall 25-45 ft

[bubba]

Here:

[TikiRick]

Here:

[TikiRick]

Ugh.

Sadly, I have to report that my tallest, most beautiful coconut palm has croaked. I was hopeful since I did see some green pushing out, but then the whole entire crown collapsed one day and I noted some "sap" oozing from the trunk...which spells crown rot.

So, tomorrow, the tree company will climb it and piece it down.

My question is...to plant:

a) another coconut

Veitchia sp.

c) something more unusual, but slower growing

d) nothing at all and let the sun shine in!

Ugh. This past winter sucked.

[Zeeth]

I noticed varying damage here. Many died, but I saw one the other day that only lost 3 leaves. It had almost a full, green crown (It looked better than most of the ones I saw in Naples when I was there last weekend). It wasn't a new transplant, and it was surrounded by dead coconut palms, so I am chalking it up to genetics. I'll make sure to keep note of when it fruits so I can snag some to grow.

[jrh735]

Thanks for the pics, Bubba ! I was on the island a couple weeks ago,and saw that most looked OK. Yellow maypans seem to look the worst where ever I go.

From what i am hearing SW Florida took the biggest hit. I hope people realize that this was a freak winter,and re-plant!!! Miami is very patchy. Everything would look better if they were pruned !!!

[jrh735]

Tikirick_ I would plant another Coconut ! A green tall type.

[Palmateer]

Report on Jamaica Tall coconuts in St. Petersburg's Kopsick Arboretum:

http://207.210.245.133/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4003

[palmsOrl]

I have lost my small, rather weak "Pacific tall" coconut and am still waiting on my other two as they are down to just their greenish spear (which doesn't pull). I haven't really seen much movement in the spear though but I am hopeful that they will start to grow again once the rainy season hits.

-Michael

[Steve the palmreader]

Is there any reports of any palm damage in the FL. keys ? the upper keys had temps in the 30s

[Eric in Orlando]

We had 3 nice specimens in the Palm Garden here. The 'Maypan' was killed but the 'Panama Tall' and 'Green Malayan' have green in the centers and are pushing spears. The 'Maypan' was about 6-7ft tall, the 'Panama Tall' is about 8-9ft overall and just forming trunk. The 'Green Malayan' has about 6-7ft of clear trunk and about 15ft overall. They are all in the same general vicinity so none were any more protected and they recieved no wrapping or artifical heating.

The foliage continued browning in the last few weeks. Amazing how long it took before the fronds totally burned.

[epicure3]

Here:

As much as I love coconuts, these just don't look that good. Yet, they appear to be somewhat healthy. They just look overpruned or something.

[tropical1]

The coconuts I saw in South Florida a couple months ago around Miami, Key Biscayne, etc. and even western Broward all looked fine with very minimal damage.

[jrh735]

The coconuts I saw in South Florida a couple months ago around Miami, Key Biscayne, etc. and even western Broward all looked fine with very minimal damage.

Most of the Coconuts looked fine for up to a month after the cold snap. Then they started to show the real signs of damage. The winter winds beat them up pretty badly. The damage is very patchy here in Miami Beach.My neighbor had two that looked fine until the crowns collapsed a few days ago.

[Dave-Vero]

Locally, most at the beach are damaged but should look fine by the end of summer. As you go inland, things get worse. By 4 miles from the ocean (the distance to the airport, which hit 28 degrees and of course had that infamous night of 35 degree rain), there's some fatalities. Most coconuts will recover. At this distance inland, royal palms and Archontophoenix cunninghamiana were pretty much untouched.

[Dave-Vero]

Locally, most at the beach are damaged but should look fine by the end of summer. As you go inland, things get worse. By 4 miles from the ocean (the distance to the airport, which hit 28 degrees and of course had that infamous night of 35 degree rain), there's some fatalities. Most coconuts will recover. At this distance inland, royal palms and Archontophoenix cunninghamiana were pretty much untouched.

[fastfeat]

I just made a quick trip from Pinellas to Fairchild this past weekend, as well as driving around some of inland Broward and Palm Beach Cos. In general, I think they looked worse in (relatively) warmer Dade than they did in most of Broward and Palm Beach. Trees in Miami Lakes parks were totally hammered; meanwhile, trees off Okechobee Rd west of the turnpike in western WPB looked pretty good. Go figure.

Other observations:

-- Veitchias on Powerline Rd in Deerfield and Pompano look great; no visible damage whatsoever.

-- saw 50' Casuarina off I-75 near Punta Gorda with 30' of dead tops, plus many dead Melaleuca in the same area. But large Bauhinia purpurea in median on 17 near I-75 showed no damage!

-- large Ficus benjamina here in Safety Harbor near the water killed to the ground, while small Adonidia and foxtails nearby, while damaged, are throwing new growth.

Strange days indeed!

[Eric in Orlando]

There is a house nearby here at Leu Gardens that had 2 20ft coconuts growing well and were planted maybe 7 or 8 years ago. They look real bad, totally defoliated and it doesn't look like there is any green growing out. These 2 palms are growing on a lakefront behind a house. In the front they have several 20ft royals and thse have only minor burn.

[sonoranfans]

In the bradenton, clearwater, and st Pete area, some are dead as a doornail and some are half burnt or more, almost ALL are UGLY. No coconuts or adonidias for me, I planted beccariophoenix alfredi instead. It is interesting to see the "burn patterns" in cocos, foxtails, and royals in the area. Large masonry buildings hold heat, so downtown areas are better, residential not so good. Surrounding landscape appears to have an effect as well(live oak, jacaranda trees are good) and of course distance from the gulf is also a big factor. Large royals do MUCH better than smaller ones and suprisingly, royals appear to have done better than foxtails. Perhaps its all the large royals, most are over 30' overall around here, quite a few appear to be 50-60'. But I have seen some totally toasted cocos right on the gulf, the best ones are around lots of masonry buildings near, but not on the gulf. As you get past 10 miles inland or so, the burn becomes more complete on all these palms, even some reclinatas are burned.

[redant]

Because of the type of event, the killing is very unusual. Past events I have seen have been the one or two real cold nights that defoliate the trees real fast. This prolonged cold spell killed the heart on many coconuts while leaving the fronds in tack. Big Palms that looked fine a month ago now either look like Pooh or are gone. Coastal palms faired much better. After close inspection of my present survivors, I'm really not convinced more then a couple will live out of about 35.

[spockvr6]

I had 3 Coconuts and chopped them all down. Two were small Maypans (maybe 12 ft OA) and one was a Malayan with about 8 ft of wood. The Malayan was 100% a goner but one of the Maypans looked like it might make it. But, it was so damaged and was likely never going to grow properly again so I removed it.

[epicure3]

Amazing stories. Just goes to show one how individual palms of the same variety can be different. Kind of like people.

[mnorell]

Is there any reports of any palm damage in the FL. keys ? the upper keys had temps in the 30s

Have been in the Keys lately and most Cocos look good, though I'm sure some have been trimmed. I seem to remember seeing dead lower fronds in Key Largo back in February. Now things look generally good except for occasional yellowing Cocos perhaps due to either nutritional problems, drought or perhaps some LY or other maladies. The damage that one sees throughout the Keys (even in Key West) is to the Pritchardia pacifica. Lower fronds lost and tip-burn on other leaves to varying extents. Nothing else was hit as bad. Other than that, the Artocarpus altilis were obviously defoliated though they are resprouting. There's one at the Southernmost Hotel with a dead upper crown but everything else is resprouting vigorously. Another near the Cemetery doesn't really show killback but is nevertheless just refoliating. Meanwhile the Cyrtostachys look fine.

Was at Fairchild on Sunday and was surprised how good most things looked considering. Most palms looked pretty darned happy. The Theobroma were killed back about 40% there but were resprouting vigorously as well. Morinda killed to the ground but resprouted there. In Key West there's a nice big Morinda on Whitehead that wasn't touched by the 42F reading in January nor by the constant winter chill.

[bubba]

Epic, You would not like it here because everything is trimmed. Notwithstanding our cold Winter, everything is cut to nubs or it would turn to jungle.

[newtothis]

I'll feel really dumb if these aren't coconuts, but this is from Clearwater beach this week.

[Zeeth]

I'll feel really dumb if these aren't coconuts, but this is from Clearwater beach this week.

They are. They look like new transplants though. I'm starting to see that now; people replacing brown coconuts. It's fine with me as long as they replace them with coconuts, and not ugly queen palms.